As described in our approved proposal, the five primary
tasks of the project are to:

1. Build a multimodal (ISDN and Internet based)
electronic infrastructure for the collaborative development and
instructional use of educational engineering materials. The infrastructure
will include ISDN and Internet-based Desktop Video Conferencing
systems, as well as World Wide Web-based multimedia systems for
remote document editing, document sharing, and newsgroups.

2. To have researchers at four Gateway Schools (including
Drexel, Ohio State, NJIT and Columbia) use the infrastructure
to jointly develop distance learning curricular materials for
undergraduate engineering and architectural education.

3. To use the electronic infrastructure, curriculum
materials, and individual researchers' special expertise in networked,
interschool classes. This will include in-class use of all facets
of the infrastructure, which we will supplement with existing
computer laboratories and computer-projection equipped classrooms.

4. To evaluate:

The performance of the multimodal digital infrastructure
as a toolset for collaborative curriculum development.

The curriculum materials developed by the four-school
faculty team.

The infrastructure's ability to broaden the offerings
at each of the four institutions.

5. To disseminate the results of the project, in
a paper and WWW-based report to NSF-Gateway.

Work Completed to Date:

Task 1 (Infrastructure Development)

Facilities for two party and multiparty Desktop Videoconferencing
(DTVC) have been installed at Drexel. These systems enable DTVC
via ISDN phone lines or the Internet. Drexel has also helped
set up an ISDN DTVC system in a structural engineering office,
to allow employees to appear in classes at Drexel without leaving
their office. Facilities for two party DTVC via ISDN and the
Internet have been installed at Columbia in a multimedia classroom,
an educational lab, and a faculty office. These facilities are
currently being upgraded to support multi-party conferencing.
Multi-party ISDN/Internet DTVC systems are currently being installed
at NJIT and OSU; these systems should be operational by the end
of April 1996.

Low budget, Internet based DTVC systems for use by
students in labs and classrooms have been installed at Drexel
and ordered for Columbia. An experimental multimedia Internet
newsgroup has been set up at Columbia.

Task 2 (Curriculum and Content Development)

An atmospheric model of the Farnsworth House is being
prepared on the Phoenics computer program, which was purchased
for this work. Mechanical engineering documents for the PATCenter
have been obtained and are being scanned. Analyses of the PATCenter
and the Farnsworth House made on a sophisticated, spreadsheet-based
thermal analysis are being prepared. A non-linear structural
analysis of the U.S. Pavilion at Expo 70 in Osaka has been started,
and a general purpose, form-finding program for fabric structures
is being developed.

The principal investigators have developed a variety
of preliminary plans for interschool classroom collaboration,
including:

Architecture and engineering students working
collaboratively to design tensile structures.

Graduate engineering students participating as
critics to help develop undergraduate architects' structural projects.

Forthcoming Work:

The project is on schedule, and we plan to complete
it essentially as outlined in the approved proposal. Some task
by task details, as agreed by the project PI's follow:

Task 1 (Infrastructure Development)

New infrastructure systems will be tested at Drexel
and Columbia, then expanded to the rest of the team as appropriate.
We will develop fully featured two-station and multiparty DTVC
and application sharing. This will include project-specific evaluations
of (among other things) Timbuktoo, See-u-see-me, and Internet
phone. We will also test and prove-out a variety a asynchronous
communication and document sharing tools, including HTML-based
remote forms input systems, Internet assistant for Microsoft Word,
and Lotus notes internet (HTML) edition.

Task 2 (Curriculum and Content Development)

The content development work described above will
be completed this summer. Collaborative Interschool Class projects
will be developed as follows: